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Ivan Cleary has declared the gang is again collectively after Penrith celebrated the return of Nathan Cleary and their rested State of Origin gamers with a 44-18 drubbing of Canterbury.
The victory reinstates the reigning premiers atop the NRL ladder and continues the Bulldogs’ run of poor defensive performances.
Of their previous 5 video games, the Bulldogs have conceded 234 factors – solely two fewer than the Panthers have all season.
As near full energy because it has been all season, Penrith inflicted the majority of the injury within the opening exchanges, working in 28 unanswered factors to place the sport past doubt after half an hour.
“It was simply good to have the entire gang again collectively,” Cleary stated.
“I’m trying ahead to the subsequent few weeks. We must always hopefully get a bit higher, however we did loads proper at this time.”
The one bitter word for the Panthers was a suspected medial cruciate ligament harm to Spencer Leniu that pressured the interchange prop from the sector.
“I don’t suppose it’s too unhealthy nevertheless it was unhealthy sufficient for him to not come out within the second half. We’ll know extra about that tomorrow,” Cleary stated.
Centre Izack Tago was a late withdrawal with a leg grievance however Cleary didn’t imagine the problem was severe.
Halfback Cleary confirmed no indicators of the hamstring harm that had saved him out since spherical 14 and was his busy self on return.
He ran the road that led to the primary of Brian To’o’s two tries, then swung left to present the Panthers the overlap that confirmed a double for Tyrone Peachey.
Within the second half, a ravishing flat ball from Cleary despatched Luke Garner over on the proper for his first strive as a Panther.
“There was a little bit of rust in a few of the stuff he did at this time. However he performed effectively,” Cleary stated of his son.
The Bulldogs confirmed extra combat the additional the sport went on, scoring solely 4 fewer factors than the Panthers within the second half.
“I’m most likely as happy with them this week as I’ve been for a very long time,” coach Cameron Ciraldo stated.
“The best way the sport began, the adversity we had there, I’m actually happy with how they hung in there and I assumed we completed actually robust.”
However Canterbury shot itself within the foot when the sport was within the steadiness – all of Penrith’s first 4 tries got here immediately after a penalty or an error from the Bulldogs.
A bout of the flu swept by Bulldogs camp this week and compelled Ciraldo to make late modifications, benching co-captain Reed Mahoney and scratching promising rookie Jacob Preston.
“There have been most likely two different guys there who, if we had a full squad, they most likely wouldn’t have performed with the flu as effectively,” Ciraldo stated.
By the point Mahoney got here onto the sector to play as a center ahead, Canterbury was 4 tries down, nevertheless it did handle to stem the bleeding.
The Bulldogs scored their first strive late within the first half, loved all of the territory to start the second and saved Penrith to just one strive in 29 minutes throughout the break.
However the end result was by no means unsure because the Panthers sealed its comfy win with three second-half tries.
-AAP